at arm's length from his brother, and eyed him from head to foot, and
Asa returned an insolent stare.

"You sneakin' hound," said Abner, without heat, as was his way in the
beginning, always. "You're lower'n I thought, and I thought you was
low." Scattergood took in these words and pondered them. Did they mean
some new cause for enmity between the brothers? Suddenly Abner's eyes
began to kindle and to blaze. Asa crouched and his teeth showed in a
saturnine, crooked smile. No man could look upon him and accuse him of
being afraid of Abner or of avoiding the issue.

"I know what you've been up to, you slinkin' varmint ... I know where
you was Tuesday." Scattergood took possession of this sentence and
placed it in the safety-deposit box of his memory. Where had Asa been
Tuesday, he wondered, and what had Asa been doing there?

"I've put up with a heap from you, for you're my own flesh and blood. I
hain't never laid a hand on you, though I've threatened it often. But
now! by Gawd, I'm goin' to take you apart so's nobody kin put you
together ag'in ... you mis'able, cheatin', low-down, crawlin' snake."
With that he stepped back a pace and with his open palm struck Asa
across the mouth.

Asa licked his lips and continued to smile his crooked, saturnine smile.

"Hain't scarcely room in here," he said, softly.

"Git outside and take off your coat," said Abner, "for I'm goin' to fix
you so's nobody kin ever accuse flesh and blood of mine of doin' agin
what I've ketched you doin'."